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Friday, July 26, 2013

From Goodreads:Alexandria Moreno, parking
enforcement officer for the serene town of Pleasant Lake, has signed on with the
FBI to nail a gorgeous suspected criminal, Miguel Diaz, who’s passing himself
off as a legitimate businessman. Alex’s assignment is to use her feminine wiles,
of which she has few, to infiltrate Diaz’s world and find some evidence for a
conviction.To complicate matters, she’s teamed up with
Detective Roman Plow, who is her ex-boyfriend, though the FBI doesn’t know it.
As they focus on retaliating for past wrongs, real and imagined, their
smoldering love/hate relationship brews. They’re not exactly an ideal
team.With her bumbling nature, a steamer trunk full of
emotional baggage, and no investigating skills, Alex spends most of her time
reminding herself that the tall, dark, and handsome Miguel Diaz is not her real
boyfriend and struggling to keep from falling into his bed. As she tries to dig
up dirt on her undercover lover, the steamy investigation leads to a fight for
her life. But who is behind the attacks?

My
Review:
Oh, this was a really hilarious book! Funny, funny, and more
funny! The way Alex is, hiding behind one liners to cover her pain and her
thoughts that she's not worth it, and that everybody abandons her, well, they
might have abandoned her, but they didn't really know her, or really have a
choice, and Miguel is a rescuer. He's going to help, and he's going to
stay!

While my copy was around 600 pages, and that it would be about
250-300 in a paperback copy, this book just flew by, from Alex's worry-ings
about if she could actually snoop around in Miguel's life, to what's she
supposed to do with her Mom and what someone's twin was doing, and the guilt of
what she had to do to prove Miguel innocent prove...not what she intended, and
some pretty bad stuff happens because of that. But all the conflict was really
good!

I really enjoyed the romantic conflict, between Roman, who is a
man-slut, and Miguel who supposedly is a sex slave trafficker, even though he
seems nice and sweet, and then add in what Roman did to Miguel's sister...yeah,
there's not a lot of good will between Roman and Miguel, and Alex was caught in
the middle of it!

Pleasant Lake P. D. was a hilarious book, really
enjoyable, and a lot of fun! I really hope you guys check it out, because it was
a really fantastic read!!!

Friday, July 12, 2013

Pleasant Lake P.D. By Kelly FitzpatrickAuthor’s website: http://www.kellyfitzpatrick.webs.com/Brought to you by OBS reviewer Vicki. Welcome to Pleasant Lake where the scenery is picturesque, the fun is frolicking, the small-town mentality is comforting (read: stifling), the emotions are on overdrive, the crime is petty and the bad guys seem like good guys.
Alexandria Moreno has wanted to ‘tackle dirtbags, cuff ‘em, and throw ‘em behind bars’ her entire life. Unfortunately, her stints in Pleasant Lake Police Department’s Animal Control and Parking Enforcement have been a smidge longer than she anticipated. Officer Moreno, Meter Maid Extraordinaire, is constantly passed over for promotion, for one reason or another – but mostly because the Chief of Police doesn’t think she is cut out for the big guns… or a police issued 9mm.
Enter FBI Agent Kilgore, a stoic no-nonsense task-master with an undercover mission for Alex. She must infiltrate the inner circle of Miguel Diaz; a suspected crime lord and nasty piece of work. It soon becomes clear that Alex has been chosen for this particular mission because; unbeknownst to her, Miguel has taken quite a fancy to her. Miguel has been profiled as a chronic rescuer and due to Alex’s ‘basket case’ tendencies the FBI have decided she is in good need of rescuing. And the worst thing? Alex’s infuriating ex-manfriend-slash-sex-buddy-slash-colleague, the insatiable Roman Plow, is her new partner in crime fighting.
And so begins the wackiness.
As it turns out Miguel Diaz is charming, hunky, super generous and oozes sex-appeal. Alex struggles with her attraction to the supposed criminal from the get-go as well as her residual attraction to ex-sex-pest, Roman. She chalks it all up to her self-imposed celibacy and desperately tries to cling to her professionalism. A futile task indeed.
Whilst attempting to uncover Miguel’s dastardly dealings, Alex falls hopelessly head-over-heels in love; except she doesn’t realize she’s in love and is reluctant to even broach the topic because of her major abandonment issues. Also, there’s no getting past the sex-slavery ring that Miguel is orchestrating no matter how gray she makes it or how many times she asks herself: ‘Would it really be so bad to be in love with a crime lord?’
Kelly Fitzpatrick weaves romance and comedy with a healthy dose of dramatic irony. In Alex Moreno, Fitzpatrick has created a romantic heroine that the reader can relate to whilst appreciating the very unlikely screwball antics. The classic romcom themes and motifs are integral to the fast pace of the novel. And all throughout it seems as if Fitzpatrick is very aware of these stereotypical scenarios. Fitzpatrick embraces first person narrative and dramatic irony in such a way that the reader feels an eyebrow-raising-eyerolling-kinship with the author, as if to say: “look at these silly people doing silly things, let’s mess up their lives a little more…”
One specific theme that is presented incredibly well is the love-triangle. Fitzpatrick takes an unusual tack with a theme that is arguably hugely over-used in contemporary romantic fiction; there is no predictable winner, no clear good guy and hearts do get a little trampled. The realness of Alex is something that is palpable through the use of this theme. It can be said that Alex subconsciously encourages and manipulates the love-triangle, whilst trying to figure out who she actually wants to be with.

‘I’d never had men fight over me. I feared someone would get hurt. I also felt a little afraid they’d decide I wasn’t worth the battle and go grab a beer together.’

Shallow? Yes. Truth? Hell yes. I have no problem calling you a liar if you can say you wouldn’t have the same thought process if you had two incredibly hot guys trying to win your heart!
Fitzpatrick is extremely skilled when it comes to comedic banter. Her characters aren’t stand-ups they’re just regular people forced into an irregular situation; trading jibes and taking names. Unless your funny bone has been surgically removed you will laugh out loud on several occasions.Pleasant Lake P.D. will be the perfect post-summer pick-me-up. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and I’m looking forward to reading Fitzpatrick’s other work. If you’re craving sexy romcom with a hint of action? Run, don’t walk to get this book!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Happy, happy 4th of July! And welcome to When Sparks Fly blog hop. I wanted to share a snippet of Lily in Wonderland with you. An explosive snippet.

Excerpt:

Lily’s nose wrinkled at the stuffy, stale air in the sealed house. It was hotter inside than outside, only slightly cooler on the screened-in porch. The heat had pulled every unsavory scent from the old place, heated it up and left if hanging in the air like soup.

Toby pulled his shirt over his head and threw it aside while expelling a burst of air that choked his lungs. Lily put her cup down and placed her cold hands on his bare chest. He reacted to the touch of her icy palms on his searing skin. She stood on her tiptoes. Her lips made contact with his neck and parted slightly, drizzling the melted ice down his back. Toby took her cold tongue in his mouth until it wasn’t cold any longer, and then pulled her onto the bed.

Lily left little rivers and puddles on his torso, and then lightly blew on him. Toby’s muscles contracted from the sensation. He gasped when she finger-painted his skin with icy water. Her clothes slowly fell away one piece at a time, like a finely orchestrated striptease. She massaged his flesh with her hot skin and more ice, cooling his outside temperature, but raising his internal thermometer.

"Is this one of those things?" Toby asked, his voice husky with desire.

"You mean one of those things that I do for you?" she whispered.

"Yeah."

Lily filled her mouth full of ice again and crept down his chest, unzipping his shorts.

"I’ll be sure to save you some ice," she murmured before refilling her mouth with ice, followed by him.

The sky lit up with bursts of fireworks that cast a pastel glow on their glistening skin. The display popped with each tendril of color painting the heavens. The smell of powder flooded the porch, combined with the applause from the far side of the riverbanks, left an imprint forever in his memory. The show lasted the duration of their lovemaking, or vice versa. The grand finale of the pyrotechnics mirrored the climax of their encounter.

Blurb:

Lily
Tucker is down on her luck and considering a career strutting her stuff around
a pole when she gets a call about an unexpected inheritance. It’s every girl’s
dream—her estranged grandmother’s kicked the bucket, leaving Lily a house on a
private island in Wonderland.

When she
reaches Wonderland, though, she finds a house that’s more like a hovel, a job
waiting tables at the local diner, and a crime wave that seems to begin and end
with Lily herself. Sexy deputy Toby can’t decide if he should arrest her or
drag her off to bed—until it becomes clear that Lily’s not the criminal. She’s
the target.

What do you think? Is love making anything like a fireworks display? Is that a fantasy, a myth or a goal? Leave me a comment with your email address and I'll enter you in a drawing for an ecopy of Lily in Wonderland.